Volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM) typically has faster access times than non-volatile storage, such as NAND flash, magnetic hard disk drives, or the like. While the capacities of volatile memory continue to increase as the price of volatile memory decreases, volatile memory remains more expensive per unit of capacity than most non-volatile storage.
This often leads to design tradeoffs between the speed and performance of volatile memory and the lower price of non-volatile storage at larger capacities. Further, to achieve the speed and performance benefits of volatile memory, a system typically sacrifices the persistence of non-volatile memory, causing data to be irretrievably lost without power.